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: Curried Beef & Sweet Potato Stew

It’s a comfort dish when you come in from a cold and blustery day. It’s also great for when you have a cold brewing. Especially if you pair it with a thick quilt and a good book.

I promise, if you are feeling miserable, this will help.

If you can’t find kaffir lime leaf (I got mine at Pete’s Fruitique), just use a couple strips of lime zest.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp oil

1 1/2 lbs eye of round steak, cut into chunks

3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed (roughly 1″)

5 large shallots, cut into large pieces

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 red chili pepper, seeds removed, and minced

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tbsp Thai red curry paste

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp salt

4 dried kaffir lime leaves

1 cup coconut milk

2 cups vegetable broth

Method:

In a large pot, heat oil on high heat. Brown and seer beef in the hot oil, for about 4 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and add garlic. Stir well and then add shallots, ginger, and chili, and thai curry paste. Fry until fragrant, about 3 minutes.

Add sugar, turmeric, cinnamon, salt, pepper, and sweet potatoes. Stir and then follow with the vegetable broth, coconut milk, and drop in the dried lime leaves.

Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and cook undisturbed for 15 minutes.

Remove lid, immediately reduce heat to lowest setting and simmer uncovered for 1 hour. It will thicken significantly into a nice gravy. Occasionally give the pot a gentle stir, taking care not to break up the sweet potatoes.

…half way there…

Serve alone or with rice or bread. Serves 6.

If you want to learn how to make these dandy chili flowers, here is a video. Thai peppers seem to work better than the peppers I used. It will take about 30 minutes to ‘curl the petals’, so you can do these as your stew is simmering…